A new Swedish MMA market will be explored on September 9th as Fight Club Rush 17 will go down at Fyrishov Arena in Uppsala - the first ever pro MMA event in the city!
The milestone will get an appropriately massive fight card headlined by a fight for the inaugural flyweight title in a must-see bout between Renato Vidovic and Jonny Touma and Finnish striker Toni Lampinen will return to FCR to take on Christian Stigenberg.
Vidovic and Amir Malekpour faced off in what was supposed to be a bout determining the new champ at FCR 16, though the fight ended in a No Contest due to an inadvertent eye poke. While Malekpour has elected to pursue other opportunities, Touma now makes his much-anticipated return to FCR.
Gothenburgs Vidovic is a five time Swedish MMA champ and two-time IMMAF European champion. Since a loss to Tuomas Grönvall; Finlands best bantamweight, in his pro debut, Vidovic has remained perfect, lining up four straight, impressive wins.
Aside from a TKO win over Eli Elias at FCR 5 Vidovic has also defeated flyweight stand out and future title contender Rohulla Yousefi and veteran Binh Son Le.
According to Tapology Touma is the highest ranked flyweight in Northern Europe and he has fine credentials to back that up with a gold medal in the Swedish Amateur MMC Championships and a bronze medal in the IMMAF European championships.
Touma holds emphatic wins in FCR, with a decision over Ilaz Zabelaj and a fantastic submission win over Safi Husseini. While Touma has other, impressive victories to boast about, no win this far has been bigger than the 2021 Swedish "Fight of the Year", in which he defeated Zoran Milic via decision in one of the all time best fights in Sweden.
The co-main event of FCR 17 will see another furious clash between Finland and Sweden with Lampinen vs Stigenberg.
Lampinen holds wins in six out of his last nine fights and has finished all but one of his wins. The Finn has scored impressive stoppages over the likes of Joachim Tollefsen, Sebas Santana Guedes and Aleksi Savolainen.
While previous wins definitely put Lampinen on the map, it was his unforgettable, thrilling, horror show of a fight with Andreas Gustafsson that made Lampinen a household name. Though Lampinen would lose the fight via a second round TKO, he put on a legendary performance and won the hearts of MMA fans around the world.
Stigenberg is a rangy, unorthodox striker with a successful past in the Swedish national team in amateur MMA. He knocked out Alexander Lindgren in his pro debut at FCR 8 and has also scored impressive wins over the likes of Christopher Bajo and Theodor Berggren.
The win over Berggren secured a fight in PFL against Chris Mixan. Stigenberg put on a strong performance and all three commentators felt that Stigenberg had done enough to win a decision. Despite that Stigenberg lost a controversial split decision, to the dismay of many fans.
The towering Swede returned at FCR 15 last year, steamrolling Danish grappler Simon Seiler en route to a first round TKO win.
Tickets to FCR 17 will be available at Ticketmaster, the main card being broadcast at UFC Fight Pass with the preliminary card available on fcrmma.com.
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